Musings on Death/ Hurray for Organic Chicken Feed!

I have killed all but one of the echinacea. The echinacea that had my heart singing a few short days ago. I feel like Woody Allen in my neuroses over these plants - I feel like a loser, like I can't do anything right, like I am destined for failure. Plants pick up on that and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I didn't promise you that this blog would be uplifting or informative. It is a narrative of my crazy relationship with farming. That is one reason why I am going to be visiting farms, to give you a diversity of opinions, stories, and experiences from people less neurotic than myself. Next week I am heading over to Foundation Farm and Little Portion Monastery to check out their operations, take some video, and report back to you kind souls.

I think I need to read about Findhorn again and get my energy aligned with the plants in a positive way.http://www.findhorn.org/aboutus/vision/co-creation/

On a happier note, the chicks are so incredibly cute! I just love watching them peep and scurry around and stretch their little necks and tilt their little heads! We got them last Wednesday from Feed, Seed and More in Springdale, a great local business owned by some very nice folks: http://www.feedseedmore.com/products.php?cat=4

And we can now get organic feed for both the chicks and the hens at Ozark Natural Foods (located at 1554 N. College Ave., in the Evelyn Hills shopping center), the only supplier of organic feed in the State of Arkansas and in the region!

Hours of operation: Wednesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sales are open to both owners and guest shoppers.

The feed is delivered in 1-ton amounts from Thayer Feed in Southeastern Kansas.

How it works: Bring empty containers (trash cans, metal drums, plastic buckets, etc) to the loading dock. Staff will then place the container on our scale, deduct the weight of the container, weigh the amount of feed you choose, then load it into your vehicle. You will be given a ticket with the amount and type of feed, to be paid at the Owner Services Desk inside the store.

There are four types of feed: Starter, Grower, Layer and Scratch. Ingredients for the Layer, Grower and Starter are: corn, roasted soybeans, oats, alfalfa, milo, calcium and a poultry nutritional balancer (a collection of vitamins and minerals that chickens need). The Scratch has only oats, corn and milo.

All ingredients are organic.

Prices:

Grower and Starter: 47 cents/lb

Layer: 42 cents/lb

Scratch: 35 cents/lb

And yes, I will plant more echinacea. I just took out some more seeds that were in my freezer in peat moss from the seed swap back in February. I will move forward and forgive myself my mistakes and see them as necessary steps on the road to self-sufficiency in food and medicine!